Page 47 of Courting Trouble

Right, so it was sign it or bugger off. Delilah took the pen and filled in the sheet.

Petra took the paper and pen back. ‘Thanks… Delilah Day?’ Petra flashed her teeth and walked off, leaving her untouched drink behind.

Delilah was left disquieted. The way Petra had said her name, Delilah knew Cassie had not told Petra it to her before. Why not? And why did she want it so badly?

This couldn’t be good.

Forty-Eight

Cassie sat cross-legged on the thin rug beside the bunks, the laptop open, angled away from the window so she didn’t turn herself into a neurotic shadow for the session. She hadn’t changed out of her training kit. There was no time. This was squeezed in, a favour from Joanna.

She clicked the Zoom link and up popped Joanna, looking like she always did: neutral blouse, dark-framed glasses, that faint, knowing smile that had first irritated Cassie and now felt comforting to see. Joanna would know what to do. Because Cassie sure as shit didn’t.

‘Hi, Joanna…’ she began and then caught the woman up on events since the last session, in the most factual and brief way possible.

‘You’re at Larchfield?’ Joanna asked after she’d finished. Cassie couldn’t miss the surprise in her tone.

‘Here as a favour to Delilah.’ Cassie said quickly. ‘She needed more court time.’

Joanna gave a slow nod. ‘You couldn’t have found it anywhere else?’

Cassie shook her head vehemently. ‘No.’

‘Youneededto go to the place that basically raised you into a world-class tennis player and is now run by your ex-coach and girlfriend?’ Joanna asked. She sounded neutral as always, but it was hard to miss the subtext.

‘What’s your point?’ Cassie said, playing dumb.

Joanna raised an eyebrow.

Cassie rolled her eyes. ‘Ugh, fine. Tell me why I did it?’

‘No.Youtell me why you did it,’ Joanna said pleasantly.

‘So I could have it out with her?’ Cassie suggested. ‘Tell her to go fuck herself?’

Joanna sighed. ‘Close.’

Cassie wanted to shake the laptop. ‘Justtellme if you know.’

‘That’s not the way this works. It doesn’t mean anything unless it comes from you,’ Joanna told her, for about the thousandth time.

‘But I don’tknow,’ Cassie told her grumpily.

‘OK, let’s go back a bit. With what we talked about last session.’

‘I don’t want to talk about Delilah.’

There was a silence.

‘I don’t!’

‘I didn’t mention Delilah,’ Joanna said.

‘I’m this close to slamming the laptop shut,’ Cassie told her flatly.

Joanna laughed. ‘Go ahead.’

Cassie sighed. ‘God! What is your problem today?!’